Murder victim Sandi Sutton-Wasmund, 48, and her husband, James. Mrs. Sutton-Wasmund was on her way to the airprort, and left behind three teenaged children.
Murder victim Michael Boldon, 62. Mr. Boldon was driving Mrs. Sutton-Wasmund to the airport in his taxi. When he wasn’t driving, he was caring for his 93-year-old mother, owned two homes, and was looking forward to celebrating his 63rd birthday in two weeks.
Murder victim Ken Cherry, 27, aka Kenny Clutch, was reportedly a pimp and a convicted felon. However, his multiple lawyers deny he had ever been in any trouble with the law, and his father insists that it is “racist” to describe Cherry/Clutch as anything but “a good boy.”
Las Vegas mass murder suspect Ammar Asim Faruq Harris in an undated mug shot
Posted by Nicholas Stix
[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:
“Las Vegas: Black Pimp Kenneth Cherry Jr., aka Kenny Clutch, is Murdered While Driving His Maserati, Plus 2 Innocent Vics in Taxicab; Media, Attorney, Cops Respond with Competition to See Who Can Tell the Most Outrageous Racial Fairy Tales.”]
A wild shooting attack on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday morning caused a fiery crash with a taxi and left three people dead.
Third victim of Vegas mayhem identified as Washington state woman
By Matt Pearce
February 23, 2013, 3:07 p.m.
Los Angeles Times
Comments 10
The third victim killed in the wild attack on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday morning was a Seattle-area businesswoman on her way to the airport.
Sandi Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., was identified by the Clark County Coroner's Office on Friday night as the passenger in a taxi that burst into flames, killing her and the driver, Michael Boldon, 62. The cause of their deaths was listed as multiple blunt-force injuries.
The cab had been struck by a Maserati that lost control after being struck by bullets fired from a Range Rover on the Strip, police said. The Maserati's driver was Ken Cherry, 27, a rap artist with the stage name Kenny Clutch, who died of a gunshot wound to the chest, the coroner's office said.
The Range Rover got away and is the subject of a widespread hunt.
Valerie Darling, who works for a limousine company that often posts cars at the Aria hotel, told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that the occupants of both vehicles had been in the Haze Nightclub at the hotel and had left after the 4 a.m. closing time. Police suspect that the shooting may have begun after an argument near the valet area.
“No stone is being left unturned," Las Vegas police spokesman Marcus Martin told The Times on Saturday. "I personally know detectives that don’t have a family life and aren’t sleeping."
Martin declined to say whether police have made any arrests. “We have tons of information; it’s just not releasable at this point," he said.
"People are so conditioned by television … they don’t realize these things take time. It’s been ramped up in ways I can’t describe to you."
Sutton-Wasmund was listed as the owner of All Service Plumbing in Maple Valley with her husband, Jimmy, according to the Maple Valley Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce, for which Sutton-Wasmund had served many roles, including chairwoman.
"On behalf of Sandi’s family, Sandi was a loving wife, mother, daughter and sister," the family said in a statement, according to KING-TV. "Her innocent and tragic loss will be felt by all of those who knew and loved her and by the community at large. Her family appreciates the out pouring of love and support, and respect for privacy shown throughout this very difficult time."
Sutton-Wasmund was a two-time breast-cancer survivor, KING-TV reported.
She also co-owned a dress shop and had been visiting Las Vegas for a trade convention when she was killed, the Associated Press reported.
"It's a big loss," Debbie Tvedt, the office manager for Sutton-Wasmund's plumbing company, said in a tearful telephone interview with AP. "This woman was everything to this community."
Sutton-Wasmund was Boldon's first cab fare of the day, and he was driving her to the airport, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
"He could have very easily took what they call the long route," Derrick Miller, a friend and a fellow driver at Desert Cab Inc., told the Sun, referring to a trick that would have cost his rider a higher fare.
"But Mike was going the right way," Miller told the Sun. "Every driver out here says if he had taken the long route, taken the tunnel, he would have still been alive. That just blows my mind that his last act on the planet was doing the right thing.
He was giving a great ride, a fair ride, to a person. He was doing his job as an ambassador to the city and they both exited out to heaven."
Miller said Boldon had just paid off a house in Detroit and bought another in Las Vegas with his sister. His 63rd birthday would have been in two weeks.
By David in TN
According to a CNN report, the suspect in the shooting of “aspiring rapper” Kenneth Cherry, which also caused the deaths of cab driver Michael Boldon and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, is one Ammar Asim Faruq Harris.
“Police consider Harris to be armed and dangerous, and say he has an extensive criminal history.”
Kenneth Cherry Sr. blasted news reports about his son and said:
“I don't like the way that some of the media stations are portraying my son, because he was black (like) he’s a criminal. My son was a good boy.”
By Greg Botelho, CNN
February 23, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013, updated 11:54 a.m. EST
Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, 26, suspected in a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, is still at large, police said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The suspect fired from his Range Rover at a Maserati in Las Vegas, police say
26-year-old Ammar Harris is at large, though his car has been impounded, they add
The Maserati's driver was shot, then hit a taxi spurring an explosion that left 2 dead
The father of the Maserati's driver, an aspiring rapper, says he was "a good boy"
Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KVVU, KLAS, KTNV and KSNV.
(CNN) -- Police have identified a suspect in a fatal shooting and crash on the Las Vegas Strip that left three people dead.
The suspect is 26-year-old Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Saturday in a press release. He is at large, though a black Range Rover police said he was driving early Thursday morning has been impounded.
Police consider Harris to be armed and dangerous, and said in a statement that he has "an extensive and violent criminal history." He has several tattoos, including a small heart -shaped one below his right eye and a large one of an owl that covers his neck and part of his chest.
Kenneth Cherry, an aspiring rapper known as Kenny Clutch, was driving his Maserati around 4:20 a.m. Thursday when someone in a Range Rover shot at his car as it headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard. Cherry, who was shot in the chest and arm, later died at a hospital.
The Maserati continued into the intersection of the boulevard and Flamingo Road and collided with a taxi, which caught fire, killing cab driver Michael Boldon, CNN affiliate KVVU said.
A passenger in the taxi -- identified by the Clark County coroner's office as Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Washington -- also died. Her death and the deaths of Boldon and Cherry have been ruled homicides, according to the coroner's office.
The fire closed a block and a half of the Strip near some of its biggest draws: Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, Bally's and the Flamingo. Police collected surveillance video from the casinos.
The shooting took place two blocks from where rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996.
The 27-year-old Cherry leaves behind three children, the oldest being 2 years old and the youngest just 2 months, his father said.
Kenneth Cherry Sr. blasted news reports and social media messages about his son, claiming some had falsely characterized him as a person "involved in the rap life."
He also disputed accounts that his son exchanged gunfire with the Range Rover's driver, saying he wasn't even armed at the time.
"I don't like the way that some of the media stations are portraying my son, because he was black, (like) he's a criminal," the elder Cherry told reporters. "My son was a good boy."
While the police department statement named Harris as the suspect, it did not indicate any charges have been filed so far.
CNN's Elwyn Lopez, Traci Tamura and Miguel Marquez contributed to this report.
Police have identified Ammar Harris, 26, as the suspect in a shooting that led to a fiery crash and left three people dead on the Las Vegas Strip. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
By Matt Pearce
February 23, 2013, 7:19 p.m.
Los Angeles Times
Police say the man responsible for the Thursday shooting attack that left three people dead on the Las Vegas Strip is armed, dangerous and still on the loose.
Ammar Harris, 26 -- also known as Ammar Asim Faruq Harris -- was identified by authorities Saturday night as their primary suspect.
Police think he got into an argument with a rapper, Ken Cherry, at a valet stand and later shot Cherry in a roadway attack, which resulted in a collision that killed a taxi driver and his passenger [see story above].
Harris has previously been arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of kidnapping, sexual assault, being an ex-felon in possession of a gun and robbery, police said.
“And that’s just in our jurisdiction,” Las Vegas police spokesman Marcus Martin told the Los Angeles Times. “He has a habit of not appearing in court, too.”
Police Capt. Chris Jones told the Associated Press that Harris' black Range Rover was found Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex east of the Vegas Strip and impounded as evidence.
Cherry's father held a news conference Saturday decrying the depiction of his son in some media reports as a gangster. Cherry's attorney, Bob Beckett, said Cherry was unarmed and had no apparent criminal history in the past eight years other than traffic citations.
[Thanks to reader-researcher OnMainStreet for this story.]
As soon as I heard the makes of vehicles involved, it became apparent that it was a chimpout turned into a full blown bongo party. Avoid the 'groid.
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